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Does anyone have a subscription to The Simpsons comics, is it possible to do so? If so, how can I? I think it'd be way easier to have it sent to my apartment rather than having to drive every month to the local bookstore.

From Bongo Comics directly in the US, there's no ability to get a subscription. For the UK, you can get the crappy UK edition on a subscription from Titan. The same applies in Australia from Otter Press.

Not anymore, Otter Press discontinued their main Simpsons/Futurama titles around 5 or 6 months ago. Subscribers got letters saying that months issue would be the last they'd receive

Mozy, as Gary (Solid Snake) said, Bongo does not offer a subscription, so your best option is to find a comic book store that offers them instead. There's a lot of online ones such as Midtown Comics that offer subscriptions (I can confirm they're legit, I've bought stuff from their website and all of their stores). Every month they'll mail you out your comics.

I just got the Ralphie comic only because the bookstore I was at didn't have the newest Simpsons comic yet, it says "Daddy says 'Print is dead.'" I thought it was pretty funny and the "Where's Ralph?" was pretty fun! I'm really tired of Louis Lame's antics. In Junk Mail, he states that 1/4 of fan mail is in regards to The Simpsons comics, 1/8 is about Futurama, and another 1/8 is his parents asking his boss to promote him. Am I the only one annoyed with his poor attempt at humor? I will admit, however, that even though I was annoyed with LL, the Junk Mail being answered by Ralphie was pretty clever.

Bruce, love your letter in the latest Simpsons issue - got a chuckle at their tongue in cheek reply directing you to your own guides

Thanks Charlie! I'm usually visiting Comic Book Guy on Wednesdays when the issues are released but I'm "on the road" so I actually didn't find out about the letter being published until I read *your* post. Quite nice that they also plugged the Archive.

WHY THE HELL WON'T MY LOCAL BOOKSTORE GET THE NEW SIMPSONS COMIC IN ALREADY?!? Man, I'm getting so frustrated with them that I'm losing interest in the comics!

I picked up 3 Bongos from Barnes & Noble tonight (Funnies 7, Simpsons #188 and another RalphWiggum.) They seem to be putting the newer Bongos on shelves the following Tuesday after the regular comic shops get their's their Wednesday release day.

Thanks for the info! I was at a Barnes and Noble last Sunday and they only had the #187 and the #1 Ralphie issue. So you're saying I should try back in the middle of next week? I'd go back to B and N if it wasn't so far away....

I know that I'm probably getting too over the top with being mad but according to that link, the new issue should have been out 9 days ago. Who knows, maybe I should ask the local bookstore what their rotation and shipment schedule.

Yeah, I think that might be my only option because I'm sort of fed up with this local bookstore. So I called there today and they said that they weren't sure exactly but were thinking probably in a few more weeks is when #188 will be here. I was so mad and wanted to tell the guy that according to the Bongo site, it was supposed to be out for almost 2 weeks now but I'm sure he wouldn't have cared. Whereabouts would you suggest I get the comics from online? Also, are they printed and sent or are they readable online? I'd much rather have a copy in my hands!

Speaking of Radioactive Man, is there a gallery somewhere to see the other faux comic covers that appeared on the Skybox trading cards?

If I find anything else, I'll post it, but this is what I've found:

Nerdy note: the "To Betroth a Foe" cover, which is numbered as issue 72, is similar to the issue number 25 cover shown on RM #100. Seems trying to wed RM is a common plan for Larva Girl. Issue 72 is "reprinted" in the 80pg. Colossal #1. I think it was also seen in "Three Men and a Comic Book" and referenced in The Heroic Life and Mortifying Death of Radioactive Man four parter from the back of Simpsons comics. It's probably the most referenced issue outside of RM #1.

These two were packaged with volume one RM comics:

I own all the cards, but they're half a country away in my parent's basement. Next to my Ghostbusters firehouse playset.

I wanted to ask if anybody picked up the latest TPB Simpsons collection Simpsons Comics Confidential? Amazon says its 128 pages and the description makes it sound like it only collects four issues: 96, 97, 98 and 99. Just wanted to double check if it contains anything else.

Seems the collections got shorter. They used to cram in five or even six issues. Now it's just four, and they don't release more than one a year.

I wanted to ask if anybody picked up the latest TPB Simpsons collection Simpsons Comics Confidential? Amazon says its 128 pages and the description makes it sound like it only collects four issues: 96, 97, 98 and 99. Just wanted to double check if it contains anything else.

Seems the collections got shorter. They used to cram in five or even six issues. Now it's just four, and they don't release more than one a year.

Maybe after this, they might think of making more then one reprint a year cause the normal comics are almost up to 200.
Plus there are lots of comics and missing stories not yet to be reprinted at all.
I hope they fix this soon.

I still cannot understand why Bongo let the pencilers go off model after having the 90s comics looking so sleek and like the show. Could they not afford the best in the biz?

Phil Ortiz, changed his style in the early 2000s. He used to be one of the best the book had when it came to the art, but then suddenly he changed the pen he uses to draw, and they now have these weird thick lines where they shouldn't be.

I FINALLY GOT the #188 comic, even though I had to drive 45 miles to get it. All I have to say about this issue is: did I really go through all of this griping and feeling let down for this crap? Lisa stories are so boring! I will have to admit, though, that Homer and Marge's sub-plot was pretty funny. Moe's cameo was pretty funny as well!

The Bongo Beat was refreshing this month! We were saved from the blabber known as Lane's self-rambling for a month. What did you all think of Bill Morrison's work with the comics?

I still cannot understand why Bongo let the pencilers go off model after having the 90s comics looking so sleek and like the show. Could they not afford the best in the biz?

Phil Ortiz, changed his style in the early 2000s. He used to be one of the best the book had when it came to the art, but then suddenly he changed the pen he uses to draw, and they now have these weird thick lines where they shouldn't be.

Long explanation:
Ortiz's overall style remains about the same that it has since the 90's, but the finished art really depends on the inker. Ortiz constructs the scenes, draws in all the characters, but the drawing is "completed" by the inker (basically tracing over the pencils with a pen to give the black lines you see in the finished comic). Someone from Bongo (might've been Bill) once said somewhere on this board that it was to do with the difficulty in finding artists that were familiar with certain pens that are used to ink comics, so they had no choice but to get people that used different inking equipment. You'll find that if you look at issues prior to #75 (the first time Ortiz was paired with DeCarlo), that the lines were generally thinner and more concise (when Phil was paired with Tim Bavington, IMO the best artist combination that Bongo has ever had). Look at #67 for a perfect example of this - the character models, poses, etc are identical to a newer Phil Ortiz issue, it's just the black outlines that look different.
Another example is that, for some reason, there was a little switcheroo around #104, where they had Phyllis Novin ink Ortiz's stories for several issues, and had Mike DeCarlo inking John Costanza's stories (it was generally the other way around). During that period, you'll notice that the "weird thick lines" now pop up in Costanza's stories, while Ortiz's (inked by Novin) remain the same thickness throughout; I remember when these issues came out (it was around #104 to #111) people here said that Novin's inks looked like a black force field, because even though they retain the same thickness they were very thick, even thicker than the calligraphy style that DeCarlo uses. Andrew Pepoy has a similar inking style to DeCarlo, if you read Futurama Comics at all. It's not exactly the same, but you see the same kind of effect where lines vary in thickness.

Whew, sorry for the block of text. But yeah, basically the end result that you see in the comic is the work of the inker.

Originally Posted by Dark Homer

I really like whenever they go "off model"

the '94 era comics looked kind of terrible to be honest

I'm in the same boat, to an extent. I can tolerate it with art by, say, Carol Lay, because you can tell there's been effort behind it. Not so much with someone like John Costanza - honestly not sure why Bongo still has him around (I guess because of his impressive non-Bongo resumé), but I really don't enjoy looking at something that looks like it was drawn in 5 minutes. When I used to run When Bongos Collide, I had an editorial about his art style, and it's still valid 5 years later. Pick up any of his issues and I bet you'll find at least a handful of moments where Lisa's hair is off model, Marge's hair is twice as tall as it should be, Homer looks like he's been squashed, and Bart's outermost eyeball looks like it is about to pop out of his head. He's truly a terrible Simpsons artist.

Simpsons Comics Confidential

Originally Posted by Captain Squid

I wanted to ask if anybody picked up the latest TPB Simpsons collection Simpsons Comics Confidential? Amazon says its 128 pages and the description makes it sound like it only collects four issues: 96, 97, 98 and 99. Just wanted to double check if it contains anything else.

Seems the collections got shorter. They used to cram in five or even six issues. Now it's just four, and they don't release more than one a year.

It also contains one story from Summer Shindig #2 and one page of new material. Contents therefore are as follows;